The weather hit angling hard last week and the weekend was particularly bad following Friday and Sunday’s stormy conditions. All branches of our sport were affected and for many the only course of action was to take to the “high stool”. There were notable exceptions though, particularly from the coarse angling scene where the big festivals fished well even when the weather was poor…

Salmon fishing wasn’t great for the most part last week. Few rivers performed well as anglers tried to cope with flood levels and brown water. The Munster Blackwater is high, though there is still a chance of a fish in the upper river or tributaries. Only 8 salmon were reported from the Lee last week. The Bandon did better, though most of the fish met were quite coloured and this has continued to be the case for the early part of this week. There were no catch reports from other rivers in West Cork. Lough Currane and the upper lakes are producing good numbers of sea trout, though Friday’s storm stopped the Currane Championship before it could get going. The event was postponed to the following day and Liam Ellis was the winner of this popular catch and release competition. Crumlin in south Connemara reports that the lake there is high but fishing well for seatrout and the anglers on the Erriff reported 6 salmon and 13 sea trout last week. The Moy put down another tough week and only 100 or so salmon were reported, most from the Foxford area. There were 8 grilse caught on the Drowes and water levels were good for the most part. The Owenea did a bit better and 10 fish were landed.

Steve Turner of Athlone with Ree beauty
Steve Turner of Athlone with Ree beauty that wins him Catch of the Week

There were some great looking fish from Lough Sheelin last week, but overall the lake was quiet enough – “a week of fishing, not catching”. Other fly anglers had some success on Owel and Lene, while one angler trolling on Lough Ree had a trout of 8.5lb. Fly fishing on Lough Corrib was much improved last week with plenty of good fish on dry sedge patterns. Mask, though high, is also fishing well and trout are coming to wets mostly. Trout anglers described the sonaghan fishing on Melvin as fair last week.

Having led from the first day of the World Pairs, German anglers Jens Koschnick and Thorsten Kusters went on to win the €10,000 first prize with a combined weight of 189.905kg over the five days. This year’s competition saw some of the best weights ever caught in the event despite the weather. Neil Parkinson won the Arvagh International with 75.480kg. Weather conditions were challenging at times but good weights were recorded at all venues. The Arvagh King of Clubs is being fished this week and at the end of Day 3 Ian Fieldhouse is leading the field on 45.810kg. Lee Addy won the Irish Open Feeder championships on Lough Muckno for the second year in a row. To the south of the country, England Youth International Alex Clements won the Granville Cup with a 3-day weight of 59.240kg on his first visit to Inniscarra.

Pike angling reports reflect the impact of the weather and though there were a few fish reported from Lough Derg, Monaghan and Longford, the catches were not as good as they had been recently.

It was a tough week for sea anglers too, particularly the charter boats. Many were tied up as they waited out the worst of the weather. With both estuary fishing and open sea available to the Clare Dragoon in Carrigaholt, Luke Aston managed to get some good fishing apart from Friday and Saturday and the fishing really picked up this week as sea conditions improved. Small boat anglers in Cork Harbour have lots of options even when the weather is poor as they can often fish a quiet corner for a conger if nothing else. Last week’s reports are better than that though, and there were loads of fish reported by the crews taking boats from the Bellavista Angling Centre.

Tomorrow will start out wet in the west, but the outlook is for mostly dry weather apart from a band of rain on Saturday night which will clear eastwards to scattered showers on Sunday. Monday will continue mostly dry with just a few isolated showers but cloud will increase from the northwest with outbreaks of rain there likely later on Monday night and Tuesday.

Safe fishing to all and tight lines, especially here in Ireland.

Myles Kelly

Catch, Photo, Release

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A picture paints a thousand words 'The Race' - Damien Willis's photograph taken at Kilnahard, Lough Sheelin 9 years ago, epitomising the frantic rush to get to that fish place.
A picture paints a thousand words
‘The Race’ – Damien Willis’s photograph taken at Kilnahard, Lough Sheelin 9 years ago, epitomising the frantic rush to get to that fish place.